Leo Strauss (1899-1973) is a critical figure within the canon of Continental Philosophy. The long journey of a German-Jew from Weimar to America not only marked the "trauma" of Germany and Europe from the tragic experience of Nazism but also, post-war in the USA, within a high academic context, the transition of modern political science from the behavioral approach to political philosophy.
Within his work, at the center of this "turn," takes place a total "turning back" to classical political philosophy, classical natural law, and ancient liberalism. This "second voyage" occurred with an intermediate stop at medieval Enlightenment, completing its journey at the "problem of Socrates." Essentially, the initial "trauma" was transferred into the Platonic "trauma": how is it possible for Athens, the quintessence of democracy, to execute Socrates?
Strauss dedicated his entire life to exploring this issue, which constitutes the founding act of classical political philosophy. Although the "traumatic" relationship between philosophy and politics had already been established in the Weimar years as the "theological-political problem," the mature and later Strauss, in the now American phase of his thought and work, repositioned the overall stakes under the aegis of the Socratic daimonion.
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